Should be an excellent game. Despite being a Hawkeye alum (and BU fan), I must admit that Iowa State will have one of THE sleeper teams in the NCAA. Returning most of the talent combined with the additions of Gilstrap and Colvin could make this one of our toughest games of the season.
Brackins might be the single most talented player we face this year. At 6'10 with agility of a small forward, I don't know who has the combo of height and quickness to guard him. Hopefully we've worked on that 2-3 zone...
I can't wait for my first trip to Hilton in 6 years...great venue for college bball. Any other BU fans planning on going??
Tickets should be readily available for that game with the students being gone. I would expect a decent showing of Bradley fans.
ISU has the potential to be much improved. We return four starters off an obviously mediocre team, but those starters were three sophs and a freshman last year (and one sophwas Staiger who had to sit out his actual freshman year). We return 6 of our top 8 scorers and add:
=Marquis Gilstrap - an athletic 6'7" wing that will be an odd situation as he will be a senior. Shot 40% from three, over 50% from the floor and grabs a ton of offensive rebounds and gets to the line a lot. Those were huge weaknesses of our team last year. Likely will start along with the four returning starters.
=Chris Colvin - solid guard that will struggle to find minutes early on with our returning guard depth unless he truly is a big time talent
=Scott Christopherson - transfer from Marquette that the staff is very high on. Will push Staiger very hard for his starting spot.
=LaRon Dendy - 6'8" athletic forward that blocks shots and scores well
=LA Pomlee - 6'9" athletic forward that is solid on defense, raw on offense. Redshirted last year.
For the first time in eons, ISU will have a full compliment of 13 players and for the first time under McDermott, we return a huge core of experience from last year. We play Duke, Houston, California, Bradley, Northern Iowa, St Louis, Iowa, Drake, North Dakota State and either Northwestern or Notre Dame in the non-conference so the chance is there to make some noise and gain some respect early. But ISU has been very bad of late and I will wait and see how the newcomers adjust before I expect much.
